Venezuela’s political limbo on display in Washington
When they meet at the White House today, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will seek to convince US President Donald Trump that it was a mistake to back Delcy Rodríguez as interim leader of Venezuela. At the same time, a special envoy representing Rodríguez will meet with senior US officials this afternoon in DC. The dueling meetings underscore Venezuela’s political limbo: Machado represents eagerness inside Venezuela for change after Nicolás Maduro’s ouster, while Rodríguez is a holdover of the Chavista system that the US has, for now, decided to work with for the sake of stability.
Phase two in Gaza begins
The second phase of the Gaza peace plan has begun, according to US special envoy Steve Witkoff, as Hamas and other Palestinian factions meet this week in Cairo to form a 15- member Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with overseeing implementation under the direction of Trump’s international “Board of Peace.” Phase one has been rocky enough – Israel has launched several strikes on Gaza, restrictions on humanitarian aid continue, and Hamas itself has yet to return the remains of one last Israeli hostage. But now the parties must tackle even thornier issues: the disarmament and political future of Hamas, the formation of an international peacekeeping force, and the extent of Israel’s withdrawal from the 50% of the strip that it still directly occupies.
Tories in freefall as Badenoch fires her rival
The Conservative Party has been the United Kingdom’s most successful political party for nearly 200 years, but its very existence now looks under threat. After its worst-ever election performance in 2024, polls now show the center-right party languishing behind hard-right Reform UK as the main challenger to the ruling Labour Party, while several former party bigwigs are defecting. Now, the crisis is internal: Tory leader Kemi Badenoch fired Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick on Thursday morning, claiming that he too was planning to join Reform UK. He did just that, announcing his defection in the afternoon. For months, rumors have swirled through the halls of Westminster that Jenrick was plotting to depose Badenoch and take over as leader, rather than defect. The shift may shore up Badenoch’s position within the Tory party in the short term, but could it come at her party’s cost?
